Jewel's "Picking Up the Pieces" Tour, showcased March 19, 2016 at Durham's Carolina Theater, is ancillary to her autobiography, "Never Broken", which is at the nexus of her every one woman show; it is her all consuming theme projected well, her life as a poetic masterpiece.

Each year-end brings the usual look back on those that have passed during the year. Here is my incomplete list of Music Icons that have passed in last twelve months. The list was compiled extemporaneously during the year as the news was reported.

Billy was born in the Bronx, New York City but raised in a area in Long Island called Hicksville. The population density of Hicksville was about twice that of my home city of Atlanta, but it apparently had the same neighborhood cohesion where I grew up.

Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits holds a special place in my musical heart for many reasons; not least of which, Dire Straits, led by the Knopfler brothers, came onto the musical scene with their first album, Dire Straits, 1978, at the height of the dreaded Disco craze.

Based in Chapel Hill, NC, Beatles & 60's rock & roll band The BackBeat pleases crowds of all ages with hits from the Fab Four along with timeless classics from The Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, The Kinks and more!

There are many love songs written over the ages littered along the American musical landscape, but few were ever written with the impact of Brian Wilson's and the Beach Boy's classic, "God Only Knows".

He is a mediocre actor, a terrible singer, a real left winger, and an Oxford Scholar, but he is a patriot regardless of your thoughts on his politics. He served in the Army as a helicopter pilot and attained the rank of Captain. He also completed Ranger school which makes him a patriot in my book

Jazz is a form of music, which starts with laying down a basic track, then adding different layers of interpretation. Often it includes multiple instruments weaving and bobbing around the basic melody. Great jazz is when several musicians take off on an uncharted journey through the basic chords u

As I wind down the series, I just had to present a couple of the Disco songs of the era. I have never been a dancer past the jitterbug era and never could learn the later other dances of the 60-70's including the John Travolta moves.

Creedence Clearwater Revival released their Cosmo's Factory album in 1970. With all the hard rock and drug culture music on the scene it was nice to get back to some good old rock and roll driving guitar and down home lyrics.

"Mona Lisas and Madhatters", from Elton John's Honky Château, was that special ballad of heart wrenching sincerity, forever etched on the collective soul of generation, which saved a lyrical moment in time, and became a gift to so many.

Formerly known as the Chicago Transit Authority but had to drop the CTA due to the city's complaints. Chicago combined great musicians with great lyrics and a rousing beat that could wake up the dead. Or at least that is what I felt like after a long night on the stools.

No trip down memory lane would be complete without a few sad songs mixed with a couple of good old boy hits by Jim Croce. But if you have ever stood in a phone booth late at night drunk as a skunk and tried to make that one call that would make all the difference in your life, then you can relate to

After The Kingston Trio prepared the world for the folk era a group from New York extended the folk craze with their incredibly good instrumentation and harmony. They were highly produced and more accomplished as musicians than the Trio.

Today's pop music is predicated upon the lowest common denominator of the human experiment. There is little that is uplifting, no building upon the art of the past, just make money, and lots of it, paid by the dimmest bulbs of all time.

"Citing Bela Fleck's nontraditional technique on banjo as an influence on his approach to the pans, Scales crafts time-slipping compositions drawing on the dissonant harmonies and angular melodies of Thelonious Monk, the experimental classicism of Igor Stravinsky, and the urban swagger of Kanye West

I, like many others, mourned the passing of John Lennon in December, 1980. Not unlike those sad times, Levon Helm of the The Band, passed today, and like the musical promise of John Lennon, unfulfilled, he will be missed for all he accomplished.